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Ho ho ho, it's that time of year again. In case you've missed out on this in the past, the rules are as follows:

Vote for your top 5 favourite albums released in 2012. Please number them, and they will receive 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 point, from your first to last choice, respectively. If you just can't decide and choose not to number them then they will each receive 3 points each.

No alterations, please, so if you're waiting to see if that Big Boi album will snip your top 5 then just vote later in the month. I'm on holiday until January 3rd, after which the results will be out.

I'm trying to start a new thread about something completely different. How the hell do I do it. I've been staring blankly at the site for hours. Clues please (and feel free to patronise me as much as possible, I deserve nothing less...)

Top four are definite. Lana Del Rey, Jim White, The Walkmen, Errors, FOE, Sharon Van Etten and Perfume Genius keep swapping for the fifth place. I'm going for Sin and Lostness just because it's so frickin' loud and relentless!

^seriously where the hell has this been in all end of year lists, inexplicable.
2) Swans - The Seer
3)Saint etienne - Words and music by... (best pop/dance album of year)
4)The Frank and Walters-Greenwich mean time
5)Wild Nothing-Nocturne/Twin Shadow-Confess/Go-kart mozart-on the hot dog streets/Hot chip/Efterklang/Dirty Projectors--take your pic
Scott Walker and Martin Rossiter albums are on pre-order which is why it's a little annoying we do this in December instead of january.

2. DIIV -Oshin
3. Ty Segall & White Fence - Hair
4. Future Of The Left - The Plot Against Common Sense
5. The Men - Open Your Heart

I'm going for that right now, there were others i've really liked Japandroids, Jack White, EL-P, Bob Mould, Errors, Grimes, Orbital, Ty Segall's other 2 releases and probably more but those stick out at the moment

1.Swans - The Seer
2.Om - Adviatic Songs
3.Carlton Melton - Photos of Photos
4.Goat - World Music
5.KTL - V
(Godspeed narrowly missing out on fifth spot there, and the fushitsusha albums as well - and all the keiji haino albums that came out this year)
Reissues - Relaxing with..The heads & the lost tapes by Can.

10. Azusa Plane – Where The Sand Turns to Gold
A scintillating drone excursion – possibly not worth his tinnitus induced suicide, but a great legacy that any fan of drone should listen to.
9. Julia Holter – Ekstasis
Feels like a 70s folk chanteuse doing drone, spellbinding and entrancing.
8. Melody’s Echo Chamber – Melody’s Echo Chamber
While no-one can touch Broadcast for retro-futurism, this does a good job of coming close.
7. Stealing Sheep – Into The Diamond Sea
Charming and tuneful folk that really needn’t be compared with the gloomier Warpaint. Much more interesting than First Aid Kit.
6. Black Swan – Aeterna
Dark and foreboding drone with a choral bent; favourite drone album this year…

And my top five…

5. Ringo Deathstarr – Mauve
A garage rock blast at shoegaze with spiky opening and closing salvos of fuzzy anthems split by a dense churning and druggy maelstrom of tremolo (Brightest Star – Girls We Know). Best old school shoegaze album since Tamaryn’s The Waves.
4. Matthew Dear – Beams
Thumping layered electro-industrial pop with hooks-a-plenty in an 80s pastiche that’s fun (rather than dull).
3. Liars – WIXIW
Tune-laden spooky electro that provides an easy intro to Liars’ brand of experimentation.
2. Now, Now – Threads
An album’s worth of singles that would give prime 90s alt rock strong competition if it had been released 15 years ago. Young love lyrics that make me feel like a teenager every time I sing along to them.
1. Grimes – Visions
Uplifting dance pop, almost like Orbital with vocals – catchy, diverse and a keeper (with my track of the year: Genesis).

Also enjoyed: Polica, Purity Ring, The Maccabees, Hecker/Lopatin.
Biggest disappointment: Twilight Sad (by a long way).
Not checked out, but will be checking out in the New Year: Yppah, Japandroids, DIIV, Actress, Lau, Stumbleine and Fiona Apple

(How anyone can be disappointed with that album I do not know - absolutely blinding / powerful / beautiful/ magnificent)

2. Metz - Metz (quite brilliant punk album salavaging the best of Albini and adding their own spin. Greatness awaits. Also gig of the year)

3. Future Of The Left - The Plot Against Common Sense (after a few years of "nearly theres" post McLusky this is now the real deal. A giant of an album in what was a great quality year for rock with a bit of brain)...and they were sensational at ATP

4. The Lost Rivers - Sin & Lostless (A massive album of noise delight - set to be seminal in its genre. Just joyous sound.)

OK, I lied- as much as I liked Toy, it just bubbled under top 5 for me. I'm also noticing Jack White is strangely absent on this list party this year (after tons of gushy reviews by everyone when it came out)

Disappointments this year:
Shearwater (I loved the previous 2 albums...), Efterklang (very good but just somehow I can't be arsed to listen to it), Bat For Lashes (almost brilliant but a few songs I don't like), Dead Can Dance (50% awesome, 50% boring), Edward Sharp & The Magnetic Zero's (nothing wrong with it but nothing to it when compared to the first album)

- mostly been getting into some old bands and buying many electronic 12"s. Would have been shocked if you'd told me at the beginning of the year that I'd be saying that and that FOTL wouldn't have made this list, but it just didn't make any sense to me. Satisfaction = bad punk rock?

I would have surely voted for Hidden Orchestra and Portico Quartet, but I reckon they don't have a chance here anyway. Moreover, I'm quite surprised that I'm the first person to vote for Calexico and Trail of Dead.